


Amorphenotype

by the Inktree (the_Inktree)



Series: Furry Spacefuture AU [3]
Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, At least at the start, Established Relationship, F/M, Furry Spacefuture AU, Nanobots, Police Procedural
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-03-14
Packaged: 2018-10-05 00:16:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10293101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_Inktree/pseuds/the%20Inktree
Summary: Life is pretty good for theJudith Laverne: she’s got a job she loves, a partner she trusts, and lights and sirens her fox is not allowed to use. Together with Nick, plus Sergeant McHorn and Officer Wolford, she’s going to catch this serial killer no matter how much nanobot cleaner they pour on the crime scenes.





	

When Judy reached the door of Dr. Badger’s apartment, her ears caught the sounds of relaxed, friendly conversation, which continued even after she’d knocked.

“That all checks out,” the doctor was saying. “Let me get the door and then I’ll show you where to get the ports and protocols for video output.”

“That should be Carrots,” Nick said, and Judy delighted at the fondness in his voice. “She’s picking me up. Early, as always.”

When the door opened, Judy was greeted by a matronly honey badger with flecks of grey starting to appear in the fur on her muzzle and on her temples. Behind her Nick was at a table, head down on his hands and a few cables of different sizes plugged into the neural link on the back of his neck.

“Hey Carrots! I’d get up to give you a hug, but I’m kinda tied down here. So, introductions: Carrots, meet Honey, an old friend of mine from my days working for Mr Big. Honey, this is Judy, my girlfriend and partner on the force.”

“You provided expert testimony on the Howler case,” Judy said as they shook hands. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Nick can’t go two breaths without mentioning you,” Honey said, motioning Judy into the room. “I hope you live up to the hype.” Well, that was slightly cold.

Judy walked over to scratch Nick behind the ears. He closed his eyes and hummed, and she moved her hand down to the back of his neck, scratching under the collar of his ZPD uniform. Honey sat down across from him and pulled the tablet computer he was plugged into towards her. “Girlfriend and partner, eh? How does that work? Doesn’t the ZPD have rules against that?”

“Those only apply if one partner is in the other’s chain of command.”

“Oh, that makes sense. Ok Nick, your video output settings are in options, N-Link, N-Link I/O, ports.” Judy watched Nick’s eyes move, focussed in the middle distance the way they always were when he interacted with his Augmented Reality. “There should be a list there, helpfully labelled.”

Judy looked around the room while Honey walked Nick through the security settings. It was a simple apartment in warm colours, a little untidier than Judy preferred, but she supposed that the badger didn’t spend all day looking at it the way Judy did her shipself. Photos on the shelves showed mostly friends rather than family, assuming Honey wasn’t adopted. There was a notable lack of androids in the photos. Most people these days had at least a couple close AI acquaintances, and Judy would have expected a neuroprosthesis specialist to have more than the usual, but there wasn’t a single chrome plate or non-biped on display.

When they’d finished going over the connection settings, Nick unplugged his N-link from the tablet. He started reading out the list of ports, but Honey interrupted him. “You don’t have to tell me. In fact, you should only give those to people you really trust.” Her eyes flicked across to Judy for a moment.

Nick frowned at her. He had never been slow on the uptake. “I want to give Carrots access, Honey. I trust her.” Honey’s face remained blank.

Judy leant down to tap her nose to Nick’s. “You don’t have to, dear.”

“Carrots, you know this is going to be super helpful on the job. I want to set it up while Honey’s here to troubleshoot.”

That sounded like an excuse designed to be easier for his friend to digest, but Judy wasn’t about to argue.

After they muddled through a couple of technical issues, and the occasional counter-intuitive and poorly-documented requirements of corporation-designed software, the conversation turned to how behind the times Nick had let his prostheses get.

“I haven’t been keeping as close an eye on things, I’ll admit. It’s not part of my job any more, and I know I have you and Finn to poke me if there’s something urgent I need to do.”

“There’s some really cool new technologies being developed,” Honey said. “I could get you into an _in vivo_ trial.”

“I’m not really in a position to try out experimental technologies. The ZPD doesn’t like its officers swapping parts out too often. You should see the pile of paperwork Carrots had to assemble to get permission for her FTL upgrade.”

Ironically, at that moment Judy was going over some related paperwork with the head retrofit technician who would be in charge of the upgrade, who was standing in the _Judith Laverne_ ’s cockpit where she was parked in the Spraks Industries’ shipyard.

“That ‘pile of paperwork’ was because I’m officially a ZPD vehicle now, not because I’m an employee.”

But Nick knew that. He was winking at her. He told Honey, “She still hasn’t let me turn on the lights and sirens yet.”

“Don’t worry about convincing him to upgrade, Judy. He’s always got some excuse. For all the effort he goes to, or I guess went to, to make prosthetics easier and cheaper to get, he’s super paranoid about messing with his own.”

Judy glanced at Nick, but he smiled, still relaxed. “Heh. Don’t I know it.” It was only after much prompting from Judy that Nick had finally gone to get his hand and n-link maintained and updated by Honey – one of the few people he trusted to touch his brain.

As they got ready to leave, Honey had an idea. “Hey, now you’ve gone legit too, all we need to do is find a respectable profession for Finnick and we could get the whole gang back together!”

“Finn? Good luck with _that_. And hey, I may not hustle any more, but poker night is still a thing. You’re welcome to join us. Though we might have to do something to stop Carrots from using these upgrades to look at my cards. Thanks for the checkup,” he added by way of goodbye.

“It was a pleasure to meet you,” Judy said, perhaps overstating things a bit, but she wanted to be on good terms with Nick’s friend if at all possible.

“See you around!” Honey replied with a smile.

“Don’t worry, Carrots, Honey’ll warm up to you,” Nick murmured after the door had closed, slipping a hand around to her side. “She was a conspiracy nut back in the day, and she’s still a little nervous around new androids.”

“Still,” he continued as they walked away, hand in hand, “at least you didn’t try to bluff your way onto her shuttle in search of illicit activity.” Judy gasped, pretending to be insulted, and held her free hand to her chest.

“Nick! I would never do such a thing to anyone but the lowest, honourless conmammal.”

Nick smiled and bumped her with his hip.

She tripped him and swung at his face.

“Judy Hopps, ladies and gents and others!” he announced, laughing, to the empty hall as she rained light blows down on his upraised arms. “Come for the blackmail, stay for the physical abuse!”

He caught her arms and kissed her nose, and she helped him back onto his feet.

“Is Wolford on his way?” Nick asked, brushing himself off. With the _Judith Laverne_ in the shop, they had to arrange alternative transport – in this case, a lift from a co-worker.

“Yeah, I called him. He had to get up a little early, but he’ll live.”

“And we owe him a favour. That’ll sweeten the deal considerably.”

“Very true.”

As they trotted down the stairs to street level, Judy and Nick discussed the big political news: the Universal Income Scheme. Judy noted that there’d already been a drop in armed robbery and petty theft – even though the scheme wasn’t live yet. “I guess it makes sense.” She shrugged. “People aren’t gonna feel like they need to steal to survive when guaranteed income’s just around the corner.”

“Pity they still feel the need for murder,” Nick said. They were on their way to visit the crime scene of murder case that had been referred to Precinct 1 overnight. It wouldn’t be their first murder, but it was a sobering thought nonetheless.

“Statistically, the murder rate correlates with income inequality.”

“I know. I didn’t...” Nick sighed. “It’s weighing on my mind, I guess. I hope it gets easier. And at the same time I don’t want to get jaded?”

“I know what you mean.”

  


***

  


The crime scene was an alleyway off a back street, but despite this there were still a decent complement of reporters and cameramammals at the perimeter, being held back by grim looks from a couple officers from Precinct 6. Occasionally a camera drone would fly too close to the police line and the translucent blur of the privacy screens, and one of the officers would bellow and point until it was back to an acceptable distance. Judy, Nick and Wolford nodded to the hippo and tiger on the way in. This had been Precinct 6’s crime scene, until they’d found something weird and Precinct 1 was called in.

Behind the screens, with their scrolling yellow banners declaring “Police Line – Do Not Cross”, the sounds of the outside world were muted by the insulation, and the subtle white noise. The three officers walked over to a collapsible table just inside to put on nitrile gloves and grab evidence bags. Further in, it looked like a few camera drones were finishing scanning the area, creating a three dimensional file that the investigators would be able to explore and refer to later.

“So how come you two didn’t get the smuggling case? Seemed like it’d be right up your alley,” Wolford said as they all geared up.

“They suspect Mr Big’s behind the smuggling,” Judy replied, referring to one of the most powerful crime bosses in zootopian space, “or at least involved somehow.” Chief Bogo had forewarned her, correctly guessing that Judy would have otherwise marched right up to his office over being denied a case so clearly suited to her and Nick’s talents.

The grey wolf blinked at her. “So?”

“Seriously?” Sergeant McHorn frowned at him as he stomped over. “How are you so out of the loop, Bill?”

“What?”

Nick stepped in to clear things up. “It’s pretty common knowledge around the precinct that Carrots’ BFF is Mr Big’s daughter. Classic conflict of interest.”

“Wow. Really?” At Judy’s nod, Bill smirked. “Remind me not to piss you off, I don’t want to end up fed to a nanofarm.”

“That would be illegal, Bill,” Judy deadpanned. “… not saying I wouldn’t do it, though.” Then she giggled at the shocked look on his face.

Behind him, McHorn snorted. “Hopps a murderer? I doubt it. Now, Wilde on the other hand, well…” The rhino grinned, and said with exaggerated sarcasm, “you can’t trust those prosthetics.”

No-one laughed, but it was an old joke. Nick had been at Precinct 1 for more than a year, now, and McHorn only seemed to use the phrase to remind people of another officer who’d been fired for such comments. McHorn had been the one to report him to the Chief. Still, Judy would have preferred he didn’t keep brining it up.

Nick prodded them all back to work. “How’s the initial sweep look?” he asked the sergeant, nodding back towards the crime scene.

“The Precinct 6 guys did a good job, we’ve got all the relevant details, we’re just here ‘cause the regs turn us into paranoid assholes. We’re gonna comb over the scene one last time while we wait for the medical examiner to arrive.” He swiped to the next page on his screen, which was projected from his wristwatch. “It’s Max, of course. You guys ready?” He glanced around, making eye contact with each of them. “In we go, then.”

They walked deeper into the alley, ears and eyes flicking around. There was the usual: towering concrete walls with graffiti tags here and there, tarmac paving slowly cracking and crumbling, the occasional stormwater drain. Nothing peculiar, in fact, until they reached the large skip bin, which was slightly taller than Nick.

McHorn filled them in as they stepped over to the crime scene proper. “The vic is an adult male pig, dressed warmly. No indication what he was doing at the time of death. It was a passing jogger who called it in: A tapir by the name of Tammy Shortsnout. She said she spotted the vic’s foot poking out from behind the bin and walked over to check. That’s her puke on the wall.” He indicated a green smear, thankfully well clear of the body, and hopefully far enough from any evidence. “She’s at work now but we’ve got her contact details.”

They rounded the bin and stood, taking in the body. It was clear why Ms. Shortsnout had reacted so viscerally. The pig was lying face-up, and missing most of his face, plus some chest and shoulder. It was fairly gruesome.

“Well, this explains why you haven’t mentioned the vic’s name.” Judy studied the corpse, largely unaffected by the gore. “Precinct 6 weren’t able to identify him, were they?”

“Nope. We’ll probably have to wait till infotech crack his phone. In the mean time, it definitely looks like this is going to be Max’s ballgame. Lets make the effort anyway.”

Nick held up a finger. “Speculation: Nanobot cleaning agent used to obscure murder wounds.”

“No shit, Wilde.” Wolford made a show of being unimpressed. “We were all thinking it.”

Nick was quick with a response. “And yet you didn’t say anything? Shame on you, Bill.”

“Still, good to know we’re on the same page,” McHorn added, gesturing them to spread out and get started.

They started going over each surface in the area, everybody working at roughly their own eye-height. It was one of the reasons the ZPD liked teams with a variety of sizes – there was much less craning of necks and crawling around on all fours when you could just call over the relevant team member.

After a couple minutes of fruitless search, Wolford asked McHorn, “Did the Precinct 6 guys remove any evidence? This place is really clean.” He glanced around at the alleyway, and Judy privately agreed. There was less litter than she’d expect, and a particular lack of paper or cardboard.

“The only blood is the pool around the vic,” Nick added, gesturing,

The Seargant checked his screen. “Nope, no evidence was removed. Initial photos show this is all there was.”

Judy kept an ear on the ensuing discussion while rummaging around in the bin, hoping to use her smaller size to uncover something that had been missed. The bin, too, was unusually clean. There were no food scraps or mould, just assorted metal and plastic refuse. She supposed that could be a clue, and paused to take some high-res images. She uploaded them to the case file, adding a note on her observation.

“No murder weapon either.” McHorn was studying the body, his massive brow creased in puzzlement. “Whatever it was, it killed him fast. There’s signs of struggle, but only right next to him.”

He shook his head, and they went back to the search, but the mood was a little tense. Something wasn’t right.

  


***

  


“Max is here.” Judy reported when her ears picked up the medical examiner’s voice as he stepped through the screens.

“Good. Go meet him, Hopps.” McHorn gestured without looking down from the patch of wall he was examining.

“Yessir.”

Doctor Maskwell was chatting with his assistant, a brown bear named Steve Hyberson, who was carrying the medical examiner’s gear in a bag bigger than the raccoon himself. Max was fairly elderly, with plenty of grey in his run, and in the big bushy eyebrows at the top of his mask.

“Max!” She waved at them where they waited by the privacy screens, standard procedure for not disturbing a crime scene.

“Ah, Officer Hopps. Do show us to the body. The initial photos suggest there’s not much left to find, but I’ll do my best.”

“I hope you have some luck. There’s not much else around to help us. Hello, Steve.” She added to the bear, leading the two into the alley.

“Judy.”

While the raccoon narrated his initial investigation, Steve tapping away at a screen beside him, the officers left him alone. Afterward, Nick made small talk. “Been meaning to ask, Doc: Did your parents actually name you Max Maskwell? Seems a little cruel.”

“Oh, no, Wilde, actually Max was a nickname, derived from my last name, until I filled out the paperwork to make it official. My original given name… was worse.”

“No!”

“Yes, I’m afraid.” The old raccoon paused dramatically. “My given name... was Rascal.”

Nick twitched. “That physically pains me, Doc. You poor bastard.”

Max grinned, and turned back to the body. “The major finding you probably already guessed yourselves – there is heavy deconstruction damage to the body, most likely from an industrial nanite-based cleaning agent. The location suggests that the fatal wound was somewhere on his face or neck, but I cannot say with any precision. I can say, though, that there are indications that the victim was still alive when the cleaner was applied.”

A shudder rippled around the officers. Judy’s eyes went immediately to Nick, who had turned slightly away and closed his eyes. Nick had lost his left hand to a nanobot cleaner spill when he was eight, and still occasionally had to fight down a panic attack when the subject came up. This case was looking like it might be particularly graphic.

Judy reached over and put a hand on Nick’s side, and he looked up and smiled at her. “I’m good for now, Carrots,” he murmured, “thanks.”

Meanwhile, Max continued his summary.

“The major oddity here is there’s no trace of the nanobots in the victim’s wounds.” The raccoon gestured to his screen, which showed the output of the device he was waving over the body. “With almost all commercial cleaners, there would be residues after the nanobots self-terminate. We’d even expect to see the last few dead and decomposing nanobots here and there, but we’ve found none. And there’s none of the organic soup you usually get after this much flesh has been deconstructed, which is very peculiar. I suggest you start looking at fast-acting technologies on the market. Maybe there’s something new that turns the waste into gasses?”

Judy nodded and started a websearch. “On it.”

As they were packing up, Steve zipping up the body bag, Max added one last tidbit. “Actually, now that I think about it I’m sure I saw reports of a couple other recent mammalicides with nanite cleaner involved. I’ll link them in the casefile.”

The officers exchanged looks. A serial killer who covered up after themself this well was a serious problem.


End file.
